St. Pat's Humor

"May ya live as long as ya want, and not want as long as ya live" is an Irish toast.

"Bread, cinnamon, eggs and maple syrup" is a French toast.

The Unexpected Memoir

              What does a famous royal do after many months of staying in and caring for a recovering spouse?  They write a non-ghost-written memoir that contains nothing salacious.  Random Penguins brings you the memoir you've been dreaming of in time for Valentine's Day.  Keep dreaming:

      You were expecting the obvious title, Heir?  If royal life is predicable, why should the book title be, also?  

      Square: A Tale of Maturation; chapter headings and partial synopses:

• Forward:  No More Wild Child
• Aristos:  Allies or Adversaries?
• This Rex Is Not Oedipus (moving from a childish to an adult view of parents)
• Sneaking Camilla's Ciggies
• Annoying Baby Brothers, Part 1: The Eton Years
• Altered Reality & Moving On  (Harry has insinuated he has more sibling dirt.  *Yawn*  Almost no one would be shocked.  Some people move on.)
• Discretion is the Better Part of Valour  (keeping "first times," and every time after, private)
• Piloting Without Preening  (from 2009-2015, there were various military and civilian postings as a helicopter pilot)
• Undergoing Therapy: It's Not a Whinge Fest (A good therapist tells you things you don't want to hear: it's important to listen.  Includes special insertion by various therapists discussing the phenomena and pitfalls of stubbornness.)
• Care & Feeding of Staff:  From School Matrons to Protection Officers to Palace Staff
• The Wedding of the Century 
• 50 Shades of Grey Tweed: From City Boy to Country Squire
• Adult Highs:  Bicycling with Children
• Bratty Baby Brothers, Part 2  (with a special section by 'Pa' [King Charles III] on how his youngest of brothers, Uncle Edward, matured better than Uncle Andrew)
• Environmentalism Is Not Performative Art
• Royal Todgers are Private Business [There is no other text for this chapter; this is it.  Prince Harry went too far, not only in discussing his own nether regions, but also in alluding to his brother's on the matter of circumcision. --ed]
• Caring for Catherine (no "naughty nurse" outfits, as in her past Halloween looks, just lots of love & care)
• Epilogue:  "It's Hip to Be Square" (Huey Lewis & The News put out their song "Hip to Be Square" in 1986.  'Mummy' was fond of all sorts of 80s pop music.  The song not only brings back memories; it describes daily life now.)   

Janus-wary

  

        Happy January, named for the Roman god "Janus."  Janus represented beginnings & endings, ins & outs at the same time.  Thus, he is usually pictured with two faces.  One of these dichotomies represented is the beginning and the and ending of the year.  Hence, January being "his" month.

    

              

 

     He also represented the beginning and ending of war, though Mars was the god of war, with Minerva playing some role in this. He was the god of "entryways", such as gates, doorways and arches.  

     In a broader sense, he was the god of transitions.  As such, he was seen as the representation of the prime beginning and end of the universe itself. 

     Romans turned concepts into deities much more frequently than Greeks did.  Thus, there was no Greek equivalent of Janus.  

For more reading on Janus:

Janus: Encyclopedia Britannica

Janus: World History Encyclopedia

Dualities from/based on Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11

A Riff on Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Sonnet 97 (Shakespeare)

 

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December's barrenness everywhere!

And yet remov'd was summer's time,

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burthen (burden) of the prime,

Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease*:

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

  ---William Shakespeare, 1609

*old school sexism:  the womb isn't worth much when the husband's died

Happy Veteran's Day

 

     Veteran's Day is observed on 11 November in the U.S.  Posting this interesting piano from the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona to mark to occasion.  This is a Steinway "Victory" piano built for our troops in World War II.  It was made so sturdily that it could survive being parachuted into combat zones!  

Another Royal Memoir?

      To recognize the release of Prince Harry's Spare in paperback and to commemorate Prince Edward's 60th birthday this past March (2024), Random Penguins Publishing is proud to announce this royal release.  Every bit as honest as Spare, this release about (?) or from (?) Prince Edward takes a different format:

     Born the spare to the existing spare, Prince Andrew, both brothers displaced Princess Anne, who had previously been the "spare" to then-Prince Charles (now King Charles III).  Until the rules were updated for Prince William's children, boys moved ahead of girls.  Anne does not seem to have minded. 

     As others ahead of him had children and grandchildren, Edward moved from 3rd in line to the throne to his current 14th in line.  Edward seems also to not have minded.  Some royals take these things with better graces than do others.

     The publisher celebrates this book as a fresh approach, a combination of memoir and unauthorized biography.  For this book, J.R. Moehringer steps out of his previous shadow as ghostwriter, a role that was no longer fulfilling to him.  He searches out and evaluates old records of Prince Edward's utterances.  He embeds himself in crowds following the prince, as well as within staff functions, to record contemporary utterances.

     In his inimitable (fortunately!) style, Moehringer once again weaves in florid passages, tangled observations on history, and philosophic ponderings.  In this case, these insertions flow better than they did in Spare because (a) Edward attended and completed university, and (b) Edward has a flair for theater (or "theatre", if you prefer).

    This book comes with an additional perk:  the publisher will send a new dustcover, free of charge, each time Edward's place in the line of succession moves up or down.

Pleasant Sound

 

     There is a band instrument called euphonium ["good sound"] or baritone horn.  It has roughly the tone range of a trombone but a "mellower" sound.  It is not as widely known as the trombone because jazz bands and traditional orchestras have not used it. (In more recent times, a few symphonies have used it and have featured it as a special solo instrument.)

     Being so unknown, it seems like it doesn't get as much respect as many instruments.  Still, John Phillip Sousa liked it and wrote special musical lines for it.  In other places around the world, it has gotten more attention.

     Besides being called the euphonium or baritone, it has also been called the tenor Saxe. This is not to be confused with the tenor sax(ophone).  The German inventor of saxophones, a cross between brass and reed instruments, also improved upon existing brass instruments.  He developed distinct brass instruments in various ranges which were all Saxe horns.

     This is a great time of the year to feature euphoniums.  They will be in all those school marching bands getting into full swing right now.  They will also pop up in a lot of the Oktoberfest bands around the world.

     These instruments are on display at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ.  It is amazing how many of these "shy baritone" types are there.  (Technically, baritones have straighter tubing, while euphonium tubing flares more.)  This isn't even close to the entire array of similar instruments there; they even had some double-belled horns, with one of the bells giving a "brighter" sound than the other.

     This is an instrument I have played many years, though I don't claim to be a virtuoso.